Carawatha have bred almost all the breeds, colours and patterns available in Australian fancy rats today, including the fairly new variety DownUnder rats. About the only breed we haven't bred is Sphynx rats, although some of our DownUnders in the beginning, had these in their pedigrees way back. We've even been lucky enough to witness the spontaneous mutation of not one, but two Manx rats. "C.Maverick", in one of our bareback lines. & "C.Sarabi" from our DU line.
We breed for 'Pet' rats. By this I mean, we pay special attention to their temperament. Where possible we also try to breed to improve the type and colour of the various varieties, by using ANRA's breed standards as a guide.
We have strict guidelines to our breeding practices, and now only breed an average of three litters each year. One or two litters at a time, to ensure we can give the pups enough attention to raise them well.
All our females must be at least 4 months old and weigh at least 200grams before they can be considered for breeding. We also don't like to breed females for the first time, if they're over 10 months old. While there have been times that we have bred first-time mums a little older than this with no problems, there can be some risks involved, so better to be safe than sorry. We don't advocate breeding initial litters from females older than 10months old.
Female rats should never have more than 4 litters a year. They must have a minimum rest period of 4 weeks between litters. While to some this may not sound like many at all, if you break it down, you'll realise it's a very full schedule.
*Once the rat falls pregnant, she will gestate for approx. 3 weeks, then she lactates for approx. 4-5 weeks, followed by a 4 week rest. Add this up and you get 3 months, multiplied by 4, for the year* Definitely a full schedule.
We prefer for our females to have no more than 2 litters per year, & in fact Most of our females won't have more than that in their whole lives.*
The longevity of our original line is around the 4year mark. Bearing this in mind, our 2-3 year old females are still middle aged, and don't usually look old at all. Hence we have had some rats mother litters when they are over 2 years old themselves. We have never had a birthing difficulty, nor lost a pup from this line yet.
You can tell the look of an old rattie, they lose muscle tone, and feel rather fragile & saggy to the touch.
This lady is over 3 years old in this photo. We bought her from Petcity in 1995 as an adult, when someone dropped her & her cagemate to them, when they couldn't keep them anymore.
Females from our Sad-sack line average a weight of 400grams and the males 550grams+. With our heaviest ever rattie "C.Banjo" being 820grams. However we were amazed by "Carawatha Chester" one of the ratties from this line who went to NZ. tipping the scales at the 2kg mark!!! a truly amazing size by any standard. Jenny sent us this photo of him in 2001.
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While the females weight/age is the major consideration to breeding, the males also have to be a decent weight, at least 250grams, and at least 3 months of age before being bred.
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There are very important reasons why rats should not be bred too early. The most common one that most people would think of is the size of the animals, but this is only one reason. The mother rat needs to be mature enough in herself (ie. past the baby stage, and well on her way to being fully grown skeletally) so that her body is going to be able to provide enough calcium to her young.
Rat mothers provide their female offspring with enough calcium in their systems to last them to their first litter. If the mother is bred too young, then her own system is in need of extra calcium and one of two things may happen. 1. Either the developing ratpups do not receive this calcium reserve from mum and may also have lower bone density themselves and/or be undersized. (Thus future generations will also be affected)
2. Or the mothers own bone density is compromised due to the developing babies within her. Her body will leech calcium from her own bones, in order to develop her young in-utero.
With mother rats bred too young, there is also the issue of how the mother will deal with the babies. It's been observed that some mothers, don't appear to know what they're doing, and may neglect or even hurt their young.
Pregnancy and lactation is very taxing on the female rats system. They need to be in tiptop condition prior to breeding. How the mums fare during the whole process is a very individual thing. We've observed some that seem to be largely unaffected by the whole process, some that have lost considerable condition in spite of eating nearly their own body weight in food daily, and then others who have actually gained bone density and size throughout the time. The way mother rats fare is a hereditary thing to a large degree. Mothers who do well tend to come from a line where all or at least a majority of females in that line also fare well.
When the mothers are lactating we supplement their diets with a number of things. Wholemeal bread soaked in organic soy milk (Vitasoy brand), Nutrigel/energel a couple of times a week, and regular treats in the protein and haem-iron families. Usually by 2 weeks the babies are sampling foods. We use Gerber brand toddler foods daily from 2-4weeks of age.
We wean our ratpups between 4 & 5 weeks old, usually mum dictates to us when she's had enough. We don't sell pups under 5 weeks old, and in a lot of cases keep them until they are 7 weeks before selling them. All our pups have been wormed with small animal wormer after they have been weaned, and not before they're 5 weeks old.
We worm our rats with small animal wormer every 3 months and treat them with an ivomectin paste once every 6 months for more broad spectrum coverage. We don't advise using ivomectin on rats under 8 weeks of age.
It's important to note, that rats should not be wormed from the week before they're intended for breeding, right through the whole breeding cycle, until after the pups have been weaned.
To do so too close to breeding and/or while the doe is pregnant, can cause deformity in developing foetuses and/or in-utero death.
To do so while she is nursing can cause the death of the pups by filtering through her milk. The pups systems at this age, are usually too immature to handle the drugs/chemicals used in worming preparations.
We don't like to breed our rats during the hottest months of the year, as we have found that rats do not tolerate the heat well. It appears that while mice tolerate the heat better than rats, rats do seem to handle the colder weather over winter much better than mice.
All our ratties come with papers, and are registered with ANRA Qld. Even if a rat is not fully pedigreed (4 generations) they still come with a 1, 2 or 3 generation history data sheet. All our rats have a breeders guarantee of hereditary soundness. If you are getting a show/breeding quality rat, then you can be sure that the rat will indeed be this. Likewise any pet rat you get from us will be a well socialised 'pet' rat. We guarantee it.
- RESERVATIONS ARE TAKEN FOR THE ADOPTION OF RATPUPS FROM UPCOMING LITTERS -
While in the past we, on occasion, sold some of our rats to a select few pet stores, we deemed safe, We no longer do this. All our ratties are sold to private homes, or kept here. We do not condone & and do not let any of our rats go as feeders, nor any that would go as breeders who's babies will be feeders. In the event of a rat we have sold, being offered for resale or rehoming, we will usually offer to take this rattie back.
For housing we have found that aquariums with wire mesh lids are the most functional and easy to keep clean. However we'd certainly use the grotto style homes for them too. Our girls are mostly toilet trained to litter boxes & housed on Linoleum floors (lined underneath with paper) & with strategically placed carpet squares in winter, to keep them warmer. Our Males however live with an all pelletised bedding floor. We tried for 5months to toilet train them & they just couldn't get the jist of it, so they're a lot cleaner this way. They still have all the hammocks & everything else that the girls get. Our mother rats have the litter tray set-up in an attempt that they'll pass their toileting habits on to their babies.
We give our ratties logs/branches from safe trees, hammocks, tubelofts & various other creations obtained from Robyn at "The Dapper Rat", Ladders, tunnels (largePVC drain piping), various boxes both wooden and cardboard, ropes and hangings to play with and on the odd occasion (usually for pups) a wheel. We use a variety of pelletised bedding products. Yesterday's News, Poultry pellets, Breeders Choice, Natty Cat & Lucerne pellets among these, depending on which one is on special :) We had previously been using Wheaten Chaff, however the quality of it went downhill & we no longer consider this a safe nor suitable bedding for rats. Far too many spikey bits in it. Way back in the beginning when we had ratties, we used to use hardwood shavings for bedding, obtained from a carpenter/cabinet maker I was working for. They did a lot of work with solid wood, so we were gauranteed that the wood was of hardwood origin. However, I do not recommend the use of wood shavings at all, for any small animal really, quite simply because so far, I've not found any manufacturers here in Australia that are willing to guarantee you in writing that their product is 100% hardwood.
Our guys enjoy a diet consisting of a dry mixture I make up myself, containing 7grains, rat&mouse cubes, premium lucerne and a high quality animal pellet, usually horse show pellets(never any type of poultry pellet). To this mixture I also add various cereals & uncooked dry noodles.
They get fresh fruit and veggies at least every second day, and as treats they get tidbits of what we eat, and some leftovers. When giving rats treats you need to be aware of how much protein they're getting. A rats ideal diet contains a level of around 15%protein. Diets with a consistently higher level than this, can cause some health problems. This would appear to affect males more than females, this is most likely due to the fact that females in almost every mammalian species use more protein, and synthesise both protein & Iron more effectively than the males of the species, who appear to store it up, rather than using or eliminating it.
Protein sensitivity syndrome manifests itself most commonly, as small irritated (usually scabbed over) areas that are very sensitive and quite painful to the rat. Many a rat has been misdiagnosed with lice/mites and thus treated for that, in turn making the problem worse. A rat with this condition should never be bathed in anything, as the skin is very often cracked, and bathing will sting the area. Some people may be tempted to put some type of soothing balm or ointment on the lesions, but from experience this irritates the rat more as you're applying it, than it does to aleve the condition.
To treat this condition, remove all protein from the rats diet for an initial period of 2 weeks. Proteins include:-
All pelletised foods - pony pellets, rat/mouse cubes etc.,
legumes(peas, beans etc.),
all meat and meat byproducts (ie cat/dog bikkies),
all dairy products,
all soy products,
all fish products (dietary supplements often contain these)
eggs &
modified cereal products (ie most commercial breakfast cereals have had a myriad of added minerals/vitamins etc.)
Initially, you could also remove Sunflower & safflower seeds from the dry mix, as they contain protein too. These would be the first things introduced back into the diet, once the sensitivity has been brought under control. Fruit and veggies that don't fall into any of the above categories should be fed along with the modified dry mix.
If your rat is indeed suffering from a "too rich" diet, caused by too much protein, then the rat will start to improve within about the first 5 days after all protein sources are removed. In my experience after the two weeks are up, not only have the scabs and lesions gone, but the fur from these areas has already begun to regrow.
In cases where the condition has not eased completely, just keep the protein-free diet going another week or so, and remember that when you do reintroduce the protein to the rats diet, do so gradually, or you'll more than likely trigger a relapse within days. With observation and sensible dietary management this condition is easy to avoid.
Rats can have a genetic predisposition to protein sensitivity. One of our bareback lines was like this. Which meant that we just had to keep an eye on who got what treats. In this particular line we even had females affected, which isn't common. We've ceased to breed with this line for these reasons & many others too.
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Every third month we supplement our rats water with an echinacea tonic. This herb has many benefits when used in small quantities from time to time. Echinacea should not be used for prolonged periods of time as it can have a toxic affect. It is simply an occasional immune system booster.
A couple of times a week each ratty gets a chewable kids garlic&herbs tablet too, which they really love. Sometimes we make them work a bit for it, by hiding it inside a small packet or box, or wrapping it in several layers of paper, stuck down with a safe nontoxic toddler glue. They seem to sense when I'm coming with a box of 'little presents' and start leaping over one-another and generally being really silly. They really do enjoy having to work just that little bit harder to find the treat. We also do this "wrapping maniacs" trick with other treats.
I hope you've enjoyed reading about how we run our Rattery. If you'd like to contact us for any rattie related reason, or even just to say hi, please do. Our e-mail contact is at the end of this paragraph. I'll be happy to help out with any enquiries about rats health, breeding, general care or more complicated genetics info.
Although I'm not currently working, I am a qualified veterinary nurse, with extensive experience in all rat & mouse matters. While I'm not a vet, & in most cases you will need to consult a professional, should a health problem arise, I may still be able to assist with advice on many health issues. Our own vet is very good with rats. Her contact info is below, as is the name of another surgery we have also been happy with. We highly recommend Dr. Larissa at the Indooroopilly Vet clinic (Ph.07.3878.9766)
We can also reccomend Drs. Michael Pyne and Amanda Hulands-Nave at the Brighton Vet Clinic.
Yours in Rodents
Yvette Mackail
